Lady Tigers keep state dreams alive

Thursday, February 9, 2012

After they dropped their district opener to Skyview, the Mountain Home Lady Tigers kept their post-season hopes alive after they held off a feisty Emmett team in the consolation bracket.

Skyview 49, Mountain Home 37

The Lady Tigers had Skyview's number last season, beating them four straight, including twice in the district tournament. But this season, it was Skyview that had Mountain Home's number as the Lady Hawks opened the District III 4A Girls Basketball Tournament with a 49-37 win.

The lead went back and forth in the first quarter before Skyview went up 17-13 at the quarter's end. The Lady Hawks stretched their lead to seven before Mountain Home battled back to a 23-21 deficit at halftime.

Mountain Home had a hard time getting shots to drop for them all night, and Skyview was able to extend its lead to 10 heading into the fourth quarter.

The Lady Hawks stretched their lead to 42-28 before the Lady Tigers battled back to within five. But that was the closest Mountain Home would get the rest of the way as the Lady Hawks cashed in at the free-throw line for the win.

Mountain Home coach Brent Keener lamented his team's poor shooting but was proud of the way they battled all night.

"It was a good effort. I thought some girls played extremely hard, which was a good thing," he said. "We couldn't get many shots to drop, and some of those were some pretty easy shots -- unguarded shots in close. Whether we got tired or nervous, we just didn't finish."

Mountain Home senior Emilee Schetzle had her career best effort with 15 points to lead the Lady Tigers. Keesha Janis-Gibson added 12 points, Selena Foster scored four points and Hailey Belt and Teresa Fredell each had three points for the evening.

Mountain Home shot just 24 percent from the field, hitting just three of 16 three-pointers. The team shot 50 percent from the free throw line.

Skyview hit 34 percent of its shots from the field, sinking two of its eight long balls. The team hit 58 percent of its free throws, including nine of 14 in the fourth quarter.

The battle of the boards was pretty even, despite the taller Skyview team, with the Lady Hawks bringing down 38 boards to Mountain Home's 37. Keesha Janis-Gibson led Mountain Home with 10 rebounds, Emilee Schetzle and Hailey Belt both brought down seven while and Selena Foster added six.

Mountain Home 55, Emmett 49

The Lady Tigers kept their season alive at home Saturday night by beating Emmett in the district's loser-out game in Lloyd Schiller Gymnasium.

The two teams had split during the regular season with Mountain Home winning by six at home and Emmett winning by five on its home turf. As expected, the game was another close, back-and-forth game, featuring 11 lead changes and seven ties.

The first quarter ended with the Lady Huskies up, 15-11, but Mountain Home took the lead briefly in the second quarter with the score tied at 24 at the half. The Lady Tigers went up early in the third quarter, but Emmett rallied to take a 39-34 lead into the fourth quarter.

"For the first three quarters, we just seemed flat," Coach Keener said after the game. "We seemed really slow on defense, and we just didn't seem like we wanted it -- like we weren't here. That's when I asked them, 'How bad do you want it, because if you don't, the season's over after eight minutes.' They played that last eight minutes pretty hard."

Mountain Home went on a 13-0 run to start the fourth quarter to build up a 47-39 lead. Emmett battled back to within three, 50-47. But the Lady Tigers, who cashed in on 13 free throws in the fourth quarter, prevailed for the win.

Keesha Janis-Gibson led the Lady Tigers in scoring with a career-high 26 points, including 14 in the fourth quarter, while hitting eight of 12 free throws in the final. Courtney Christiansen added nine points, going five-for-six from the foul line in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, Selena Foster scored seven, Marissa Streeter and Emilee Schetzle had four each, Teresa Fredell finished with three while Hailey Belt added two.

Mountain Home dominated the boards, 38-16, with Keesha Janis-Gibson bringing down 10 rebounds. Selena Foster added seven while and Hailey Belt finished the night with six.

Mountain Home improved to 7-15 on the season and faced Nampa on Tuesday at Skyview. The victor faces the winner of the Kuna-Bishop Kelly game for third place at 6 p.m. Thursday at Skyview.

The third place winner moves on to a play-in game on Saturday in either Mountain Home or Wendell to determine the final berth to state from District III.

The State 4A Girls Basketball Tourney runs from Feb. 16 to 18 at Timberline High School in Boise.

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